Without taking away from your main point, I think deGrasse-Tyson would have been much happier as a priest than a scientist. He seems to view science more as a body of authoritative answers to be dispensed by the gatekeepers rather than as a method of testing hypotheses that's useable by all. Science in general seems to suffer from that attitude anymore, and I see no signs that it's improving.

Yes, people who don't know what a theory means in science drive me crazy. Then you have the ones who say well scientists just pull stuff out of their ass. When it is pointed out to them that you have peer reviewed scientific papers they counter that the papers are only reviewed by other scientists in that particular field who are of course biased just like the original author. So I guess Neil Degrasse Tyson should have his next scientific paper looked over by some guy flipping burgers at McDonald's. Sheesh. Oh and let's not forget the religious types who go nuts when science doesn't have an answer. Therefore the answer has to be God. And last but not least the science detractors who point out that science changes its conclusions about things. See, they say. Science just doesn't know. Truly amazing.

c.d.

P.S. Oh and let's not forget Lawrence Krauss and a universe from nothing. He really should have known better than to give his book that title. And now you get countless idiots who say how can anybody believe something so stupid as the universe being created by nothing. Of course they simply don't understand his use of the term "nothing."

I have always been amazed myself at the spelling and grammar errors that you see on the internet. You would think if you are going to have your name attached to something that thousands of people are going to see that you would take a few moments to proofread.

By the way, Caz do you remember that thread I started a few years ago gently rebuking bad grammar and spelling that was becoming rampant on Casebook? Man, did that turn into an absolute **** storm. People got seriously riled up.

I prefer professor Jim Al Khallili. I actually understood, or thought I understood, something about quantum mechanics after one of his demonstrations.
Going on wiki to learn more is a discouraging process. Terms I don't understand and equations that look like a knitting tangle. I understood that I didn't really. No doubt those who do have a high I.Q, but it also represents a lifetime of study and hard work.
Not all opinions are equal, although all must be heard, and weighed accordingly.
My grind is with those who have no better use for life than to gratify their basic appetites, and think it represents common sense or realistic thinking. Perhaps it's a tendency that all of us are guilty of, that everybody else thinks as we do.
The wearying process of trying to be the sole rational voice on forums that have fallen to the majority of the ignorant is easily solved- leave the forum. It still feels like you should still be posting, trying to change hearts and minds.
Ignorance was once a cause of shame. Now it's celebrated, often as a badge of hyper masculinity I'm ashamed to say.

Great post, Martin. It should make us all think a bit more before assuming we are in the right, either because we are the only one marching in step, or because we have an army of followers who couldn't think for themselves if their life depended on it.

Love,

Caz
X

__________________"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." Peter Ustinov

We live in an age of specialisation, and many people would rather be an 'expert' (in their own opinion) on one topic than have a broader but shallower interest in a range of subjects.

Yes, there's a lot of crap on the internet but such is life. What bothers me is the following :

From time to time, you hear a debate in a pub at a table next to you, and you immediately understand what the real case is with the democracy.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, but in a democracy most people realise that they are not experts on anything much, but they decide which decisions should be reserved for experts and which decisions they should take for themselves. Or they decide which bunch of politicians they trust to pick the right experts to make the decisions. The point is, once you let the 'experts' decide what you are or are not allowed to decide, and even let the 'experts' decide who counts as an expert, then you are truly, madly, deeply f*cked.

PS Martin, it's the same for me with quantum mechanics. Up to a point it's possible to understand it, but the sad fact is that there's no bypassing the mathematics.

Hi Robert,

I find the problem with some people who have specialised from an early age, at the expense of other subjects, is that they seem to think that because they are an established 'expert' in one field, they can claim to be better informed than most about virtually any other subject that comes up for debate, when the opposite is more likely to be true.

It can be laugh out loud funny to see someone like this struggle with a subject they know a lot less about than people who never specialised, and were able to spend those years gaining experience and absorbing knowledge on a wide variety of different topics, including the one the 'expert' thinks he/she has mastered.

Love,

Caz
X

__________________"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." Peter Ustinov

I have always been amazed myself at the spelling and grammar errors that you see on the internet. You would think if you are going to have your name attached to something that thousands of people are going to see that you would take a few moments to proofread.

By the way, Caz do you remember that thread I started a few years ago gently rebuking bad grammar and spelling that was becoming rampant on Casebook? Man, did that turn into an absolute **** storm. People got seriously riled up.

P.S. I hope I didn't misspell anything in this post.

c.d.

That was splendid, c.d.

I should have stopped being surprised years ago to find people who couldn't string a few words together mocking the spelling and grammar errors in a certain diary. Often they spell it 'dairy' with evidently no irony or self-awareness. For me it's like seeing a semi-literate poster mocking the author of the 'From Hell' letter for not writing it in better English, while saying a medical student probably sent it with the kidney, pretending to be JtR.

Love,

Caz
X

__________________"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." Peter Ustinov